


Unweaving the Rainbow

by pandemonium_213



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: General, Pre-Years of the Trees
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 22:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3746345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandemonium_213/pseuds/pandemonium_213
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The student of Nienna takes issue with the servant of Aulë's study of light.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Unweaving the Rainbow

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

The fractured song of the sun's light, parsed by hundreds of crystals, lashed the stark walls of the workshop. The studen of Nienna, still unaccustomed to the corporeal, squinted at the cacophony of hues thrown forth by suspended geometries.  
  
Sensing his presence, the servant of Aulë turned to his peer. He smiled and beckoned.  
  
"Beautiful, isn't it?" said Aulë's man, gesturing to the fragmented light.  
  
"Yes, the colors are lovely, but there is much to be said for the pure light of the sun."  
  
"That is so, but I wish to understand the light's order from its spectrum."  
  
Harmonics from a remote plane entered the discomfited thought of Nienna's pupil, and he recited the words:  
  
_There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:_  
 _We know her woof, her texture; she is given_  
 _In the dull catalogue of common things._  
 _Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,_  
 _Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,_  
 _Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine—_  
 _Unweave a rainbow..._  
  
The servant of Aulë immediately countered:  
  
_Did ever poet image aught so fair,_  
 _Dreaming in whisp'ring groves by the hoarse brook?_  
 _Or prophet, to whose rapture heaven descends?_  
 _Ev'n now the setting sun and shifting clouds,_  
 _Seen, Greenwich, from thy lovely heights, declare_  
 _How just, how beauteous the refractive law._  
  
"Your curiosity will be your downfall," said Nienna's student. "He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."  
  
"And he who does not seek to discover the order of a thing will never comprehend it."  
  
Aulë's servant turned away, resuming his measurements of the white light that unraveled into vibrant tones of soprano violet to basso red. Nienna's devotee reconsidered the uncompromising beauty of the refractive law, his foresight informing him this was only the beginning of the debate.


	2. Unweaving the Rainbow

Thanks to my LJ-droogs at the Bad Clam for feedback and in particular SWG member Moreth for the comment (see the servant of Aulë's response) that inspired me to write this.  

With regard to the "student of Nienna," recall from _The Silmarillion_ :

_Wisest of the Maiar was Olórin. He too dwelt in Lórien, but his ways took him often to the house of Nienna, and of her he learned pity and patience._

The title is ripped right off of Richard Dawkins' book, [Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder](http://www.amazon.com/Unweaving-Rainbow-Science-Delusion-Appetite/dp/0618056734) and the quoted verses are from John Keats' [Lamia](http://www.bartleby.com/126/37.html) (~ verse 230 and on) and [A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-poem-sacred-to-the-memory-of-sir-isaac-newton/) by James Thomson.

Readers will no doubt recognize the line "He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom" from _The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of Ring_ by J.R.R. Tolkien.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my LJ-droogs at the Bad Clam for feedback and in particular SWG member Moreth for the comment (see the servant of Aulë's response) that inspired me to write this.
> 
> The title is ripped right off of Richard Dawkins' book, [Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder](http://www.amazon.com/Unweaving-Rainbow-Science-Delusion-Appetite/dp/0618056734) and the quoted verses are from John Keats' [Lamia](http://www.bartleby.com/126/37.html) (~ verse 230 and on) and [A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-poem-sacred-to-the-memory-of-sir-isaac-newton/) by James Thomson.
> 
> Readers will no doubt recognize the line "He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom" from _The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of Ring_ by J.R.R. Tolkien.


End file.
